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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Zoe: 17 Months

I can not believe I have documented so little of Zoe's life and sweet personality since turning 1. It saddens me, because she has changed so much and brought so much joy that I could never remember or share it all in this post.

She is a total daddy's girl which at this point makes my heart happy. She asks about him in the morning. Once I say he went to work. She doesn't ask again until I begin cooking dinner. As soon as she sees or hears him at the door she runs to meet him with extreme excitement and doesn't leave his side until bed time.

She loves shoes. She gets hers and mine and Sam's when she knows it is time to leave. She often will ask to wear them around the house. When she wants to take a walk she reaches for the shoe bin while saying, "Wal, Wal."

She loves to be outside. Currently she prefers to take walks around the block, but during the last 5 months she has thoroughly enjoyed the sand box, simply sitting on the steps, climbing up and down the steps, playing in the water table, sitting on the play tractor, digging in the dirt, climbing in and out of her cozy coupe, and going down her small slide.

She has obviously learned to walk since my last update. She climbs up and down our stairs independently. She can climb onto the couch and onto our rocking chair on the front porch. She is still working hard to climb independently into her rocking chair in her room and onto B's bed.

Helps clean up toys when we sing, "This is the way we clean up our toys, clean up our toys, clean up our toys…."

She points to her eyes, nose, ears, mouth, belly and belly button when asked

She calls her pacifier Bapee

She calls her baby dolls Mimi

She is much like her brother in that she loves water. She requests bubbles when it is bath time. She splashes with both her hands and feet. She tries to dump water on B's head and enjoys covering him with bubbles. She lays down on her back with only her mouth, nose, and eyes sticking out. She enjoys filling up her buckets when the water is running out of the faucet. She also asks to wash her hands every time we are at the sink.

She kisses, pats, and rocks her "Mimi's." She gives them their paci. She usually keeps one Mimi for herself and takes another one to B, so he can care for it.

She doesn't love to sit and read books like her brother, but there are a few she consistently shows interest in. Her absolute favorite is:

Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton

She also likes:

My Little Book About God

Bible

Doggies

Dora books

There are 2 things she and Bennett have in common when it comes to food:

They both love to eat.

They both could live on yogurt

Otherwise, they are completely different. Bennett rarely if ever threw his food off the high chair. He rarely spit his food out. Instead, he would put his mouth on it and if he didn't like it he would put it back on the tray. When he liked something, he liked it---the end. She, on the other hand, loves to throw food on the floor. If she doesn't like it, she SPITS it with vigor. She may like something today and hate it tomorrow. With that said, she still gives us very little trouble with food. She likes yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, guacamole, turkey, macaroni and cheese, apples, bananas, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, clementines, peaches, pears, raspberries, blackberries, green beans (occasionally), broccoli (occasionally), peas, hamburger, french fries, raisins, PB and J, and plenty of other snacks. She loves fruit, but rarely eats veggies. I can get her to eat some vegetables if I give her something to dip them in (hummus, guacamole, ranch, ketchup, etc.)

She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 p.m. She wakes up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Most days she is only taking 1 nap around 12:30 p.m., but will occasionally take a short morning nap with a second nap later in the day. She typically naps 1 to 1.5 hours. Unless she is sick or teething she typically wakes up and plays joyfully in her crib for 15 minutes before yelling for us. She is easy to put to sleep. She used to reach for her crib almost immediately after we sat down to rock her. Now, she begins singing, "Jesus Loves Me," which is her cue for us to sing it to her. After we finish singing she reaches for her crib and goes to sleep. Her "Bapee" is her lovie. She has 2-6 in her crib at all times. She sucks on one and rubs another in between her fingers while going to sleep.

I could write more, but she will be 18 months next week, so I hope to do another post.

Dearest Zoe,

I wish I could express in words the joy you bring to our family. Everything from your sweet curls to your pug nose to the gap between your teeth to your chunky thighs to your infectious smile to your belly laugh to your serious scowl to your dancing feet to your love of beads to your dumping of toys. You simply put a smile on our face and a joy in our hearts.

Your girly-ness connects me to you in a way I did not expect. For some reason watching you carry your purse, pretend to put on lipstick, bring me your shoes, use a rag to clean the floor, ask for lotion makes me smile and get teary eyed. I think I can see your innocence, yet envision you grown up and that creates more emotion than I can explain here.

I want you to know your dad and I think you are the cutest, sweetest, sassiest, funniest little girl on the planet (and your brother is slowly agreeing with us). When I think about you and how I love you I ache on the inside. You may not understand that when you first read this, but if God our Father blesses you with children of your own one day you will.

3 comments:

I absolutely love this post. SO glad you let me know as I've gotten so behind lately. These pictures are amazing. And the ones at the end where she's looking at her shadow are so sweet. Your letter to her is beautiful. I especially love the part about seeing her innocence and yet envisioning her grown up... to think we both wanted another boy :)

Just saw this post today. Love it so much! Wish we were closer to play with our kids together all the time. She's such a doll and I love all of the little things you wrote to keep this "blink of an eye" time in your mind forever. Love you!